THE HOLY MOUNTAIN - Alejandro Jodorowsky

Dienstag 11.05.2010
20.30 Uhr

vorgestellt von James Bews

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN | Mexiko, USA 1973 | Regie: Alejandro Jodorowsky | Buch: Alejandro Jodorowsky | Kamera: Rafael Corkidi | Montage: Federico Landeros | Produzenten: Mick Gochanour, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Robin Klein, Roberto Viskin | Musik: Don Cherry, Ronald Frangipane, Alejandro Jodorowsky | Darsteller: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, Zamira Saunders, Juan Ferrara, Adriana Page | 114 Minuten | Farbe | Englisch, Spanisch mit UT

In a sense Alejandro Jodorowsky's first three feature films - Fando y Lis (1968), El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973) – all tell essentially the same story: a man goes on a metaphysical quest for self-knowledge and divine enlightenment through an imperfect world of symbols, delusions and perversions. Yet despite their shared DNA, each cinematic mutation was to prove more monstrously complex than its predecessor, and though El Topo is probably the best known of the three – not least because it was the first film to be embraced by the emerging 'midnight movie' circuit – THE HOLY MOUNTAIN represents, in keeping with its title, the very pinnacle of Jodorowsky's early filmmaking career.
All-encompassing in its themes, and overwhelming in its stylised aesthetics, it is certainly one of the most eye-goggling, awe-inspiring and unapologetically pretentious movies of the last century. (...)

What do the Tarot, the Kaballah, Alchemy, mysticism, Gnosticism, Shamanism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Freemasonry, poetry, economics, idealism, cynicism, political satire, poetry, social commentary, philosophy, theology, history, futurism, surrealism and realism all have in common? Well, not much; but THE HOLY MOUNTAIN mixes them all up in a heady blend that is as coherent, or incoherent, as an encyclopaedia of human knowledge, in an absurdly ambitious attempt to expand the viewer's mind and show life in all its dizzying complexity. Like some mad physicist out to find the Unifying Theory of Everything, Jodorowsky leads a carnivalesque parade where clashing movements and conflicting ideologies are all allowed to dance together to the throbbing of his overstimulated brain.

[Text von Anton Bitel: http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?id=5884]

LINKS:

Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Sacra_%E2%80%93_Der_heilige_Berg